The Sumerian King List

David Miano Everything you wanted to know about the Sumerian King List but were afraid to ask. 

Posted on You Tube by World of Antiquity Nov 4, 2021

The Sumerian King List is an ancient Mesopotamian text that records the names of rulers who reigned over Sumer, along with the lengths of their reigns and the locations of their rule. Written in Sumerian and preserved on several clay tablets (the most complete of which is the Weld-Blundell Prism in the Ashmolean Museum), the list begins with kings who supposedly ruled before a great flood and continues through various city-states such as Kish, Uruk, Ur, and Isin. Its early sections attribute impossibly long reigns—lasting tens of thousands of years—to antediluvian kings, blending myth and legend. After the flood, reign lengths become more realistic, reflecting a transition from divine or semi-divine rule to more historical governance.

Beyond its function as a chronicle, the King List served a clear ideological purpose. By presenting kingship as a divinely ordained institution that “descended from heaven,” it legitimized political authority and reinforced the idea of a single, continuous tradition of rule—despite the region’s actual fragmentation and frequent power shifts. Scholars believe it may have been compiled during the early second millennium BCE, likely under the kings of Isin, as a way to assert their legitimacy after the fall of the Third Dynasty of Ur. As such, the Sumerian King List is both a valuable historical artifact and a piece of political propaganda, reflecting how ancient Mesopotamians sought to impose order and divine sanction on their complex and often contested political landscape.

The Weld-Blundell Prism chronicles rulers with reigns lasting thousands of years.

Antediluvian Kings

1 Alulim of Eridu: Reigned for 28,800 years.
2 Alalngar of Eridu: Reigned for 36,000 years.
3 En-men-lu-ana of Bad-tibira: Reigned for 43,200 years.
4 En-men-gal-ana of Bad-tibira: Reigned for 28,800 years.
5 Dumuzid, the Shepherd of Bad-tibira: Reigned for 36,000 years.
6 En-sipad-zid-ana of Larak: Reigned for 28,800 years.
7 En-men-dur-ana of Sippar: Reigned for 21,000 years.
8 Ubara-Tutu of Shuruppak: Reigned for 18,600 years. Postdiluvian Kings

After the great flood, the reign lengths become shorter, but some are still quite long by modern standards:

Jushur of Kish: Reigned for 1,200 years.
Kullassina-bel of Kish: Reigned for 960 years.
Nangishlishma of Kish: Reigned for 670 years.
En-tarah-ana of Kish: Reigned for 420 years.
Babum of Kish: Reigned for 300 years.
Puannum of Kish: Reigned for 840 years.
Kalibum of Kish: Reigned for 960 years.
Kalumum of Kish: Reigned for 840 years.
[...]

'Side scan sonar of Atlantis off the coast of Cuba'.

 
'Side scan sonar of Atlantis off the coast of Cuba'.

Old Stories Given Credence by Ignorant Influencers

Continuity. Thousands of years ago, authoritarian elites made up an origins story to legitimate their rule. Now uneducated sheeple in the US enabling another autharitarianism seize upon the very same made-up timelines to legitimise their own beliefs:

Joe Rogan: “I’ve been really fascinated by the Sumerian King List. They’re the ones that have all this crazy stuff with the Anunnaki. It’s this list of people who ran the Earth for tens of thousands of years. Their reign was like tens of thousands of years, and then there’s this huge flood. Afterwards, the timelines become way more—it’s like, he was a king for 50 years. They have it documented to like eight kings over the entire course of their civilization, including the places that these kings ruled that actually exist. These are ancient cities that are actually built on top of even more ancient cities. And they had an understanding of stuff that was way beyond what we thought they were capable of. They have Pythagoras’ theorem 1,000 years before Pythagoras".

Bret Weinstein: “There is this increasingly fascinating thread about a recurrent disaster cycle, and the possibility that sophisticated civilizations get erased and that we rediscover.”

@joerogan @BretWeinstein

Some Things that Work

Anthropologist Chris Kavanagh (@C_Kavanagh), answering Sabine Hossenfelder (August 15th 2025) goes through "some things that work on YouTube" that are to some extent relevant to the pseudoarchaeology issue:

1. Present yourself as a renegade truthteller standing up to a corrupt establishment.

2. Explain that mainstream sources are lying to you, but your channel will provide the hard truths.

3. Imply nefarious forces are trying to censor you.

4. Flatter your audience that by following your channel, they are displaying nuance and independent thinking.

5. Present all criticism as bad faith- ideally, also frame as self-serving efforts to protect funding/authority.

6. Offer 'heterodox' takes that pander to your audience.

7. Make videos about culture war topics and if possible cite figures like Thiel, Musk, and Eric Weinstein.

8. Make some soft jabs at targets your audience likes to demonstrate your independence/lack of bias, but reserve your strongest venom for targets they dislike or disapprove of.

9. Cultivate desired parasocial attention by liking all flattering comments and ignoring/blocking anyone expressing critical opinions.

10. Engage in cross-promotional activities with figures who will endorse your renegade status and provide access to sympathetic audiences.